----- Original Message -----
From: Carlo Traverso <traverso(a)dm.unipi.it>
Date: Tuesday, November 9, 2004 2:43 pm
Subject: Re: [PGCanada] Introductions, etc.
> Does this have a technical motivation? (for example, avoid the
> complications of UTF-8 being life+50) Or just to have a companion to
> PG-CA?
A legal one: Stuff that would be eligible for a PG-Canada, and hence
likely to draw even more Canadian volunteers, can't always legally be
done through DP-INT. There are thousands of PD works under life+50 in
Canada that won't be eligible under the PG/DP American copyright rules.
We could do them in an all-Canadian site, but not the existing PG/DP
site.
Or, we can funnel it all through DP-EU, assuming that there are no
further complications legally. Do they operate under life+50, and if so
where are they depositing their texts?
> The effort to bring up a DP site is non negligeable, much more
> than overcoming the utf-8 barier; DP-EU still has space to grow, and
> will surely welcome new forces. For example, our waiting lists are
> empty, anything that you want to post is welcome. When DP-EU has
> grown, and canadian squirrels matured, detaching a canadian clone
> might be much easier. Currently, a division of efforts might create
> problems to both.
And on the other hand, an all-Canadian, or an international non-
national life+50 version of DP might help draw more volunteers out of
the woodwork.
On the Project Gutenberg business itself, setting aside the big and
valuable and important work done by the DP annex, a Canadian branch
plant would allow the "Canadian editions" of PG texts -- whether
transferred from PG where eligible, or created under life+ rules
outside the US -- to get (free) ISBNs for those editions. This may have
usefulness down the road, as has been discussed on the DP forums.
